Female Disguised as a Man: A Warring States Hostage Slave Cannot Escape

On the day Zhao Wang surrendered, she entered Qin as a political hostage under the identity of the Crown Prince.

At the surrender banquet, Zhao Shu was horrified to discover that the lowly criminal slave she had once toyed with and who had been obsessively devoted to her had transformed into the powerful grandson of Qin Wang.

Back then, she had been spoiled, arrogant, and reckless, and had done countless things to humiliate him.

As the banquet reached its height, Ying Wuji blocked her path. Behind his spring-like, beautiful features was an undisguised ruthlessness.

“Three years ago, you kept me as your bed slave and favored attendant. Today, I hold your life and death in my hands… But rest assured, my lord, I despise the love between men above all else.”

She was punished and sent to the stone quarry, worked as a horse servant, and even served wine dressed in a servant’s robe…

Clearly, she was the one being broken down, yet the noble and elegant grandson of Qin Wang became increasingly quick-tempered and emotionally unsettled.

Until one night, Zhao Shu pleaded with him to save her younger clanswoman. Crying, she slowly removed the coarse garments of a hostage slave before him.

When the candlelight revealed the secret she had hidden, Ying Wuji’s eyes darkened like a beast that had finally spotted its prey.

At that moment, he suddenly realized that all these years, what he felt toward Young Master Shu was not merely hatred, but perhaps… desire.

From then on, the way he humiliated her changed.

“Do you still look down on me? What does the Crown Prince of Zhao think now that you’ve been embraced by a filthy insect like me?” Beneath the lamplight, the man’s beautiful features were almost demonic as he curled his lips in mockery. Suddenly, he gripped her chin tightly and whispered hoarsely with deceptive gentleness, “Call me big brother.”

P.S.

1. The kingdom falls from the very beginning. The heroine is disguised as a man. After the thousand-year straight-laced hero is tempted into accepting same-sex affection… the heroine later returns to female attire.
2. Forced possession + chasing the wife to the crematorium (wife-chasing trope), bittersweet angst with plenty of emotional pain
3. Male lead: a mixed Hu-Han political schemer (with unstable, almost mad tendencies). Female lead: an outwardly incompetent “good-for-nothing.”
4. An entirely fictionalized Warring States setting, very loosely based on history.